Becoming A Son

by David Labrava

  I had never smoked cocaine before this was my first time. I took a big hit and handed back the pipe. I can easily say I never ever felt that same rush again like I did that time. It blew my head off. And I instantly wanted more. I ended up smoking all the money I had in my pocket and owing Marcus two hundred dollars by the time Pauly opened his door to go to work. He took one look at me, I was totally freaked in a chair in the corner.

  “Take these.” He handed me four valiums. I took them and drank some water.

  “Let’s go.” Pauly said. Marcus was loading another hit into his pipe.

  “And don’t forget you owe me two hundred bucks, D.” Marcus called out with a laugh. He just wanted Pauly to know how in debt I already was. Pauly looked at me like I was an idiot.

  We got in the truck and I could feel the valiums taking effect and they felt good.

  “Feeling better?” Pauly asked me.

  “A little, thanks.”

  “I told you he was way intense.” Pauly said.

  “It aint just him, that shit is intense.” I was starting to feel a little better.

  “Tell me about it. I just got out of debt. Now I am saving for my own place. Do your self a favor and stay away from that shit. He will keep giving it to you till you owe him about a thousand bucks, then he will cut you off.”

  We pulled into the fruit stand and as Pauly jumped out he looked back at me.

  “Try to get a little rest, these guys will load up the truck, I check it on the way in, the truck, the rest is up to us.”

  “What do you mean up to us?”

  “I’m trying to build up a route, get some customers. I gotta beat the other guys there and beat their price.”

  “Sounds risky.”

  “Everything’s a risk these days.”

  Pauly jumped out of the truck and I tried to close my eyes. At least the valiums were kicking in. He woke me up about an hour later.

  “Let’s go.”

  Pauly was smooth, every restaurant he stopped at bought his stuff. We were done by three o’clock. He handed me a hundred for the day. He made about five hundred.

  “Now don’t blow it with Marcus and his shit. In about a week I’m moving somewhere else, you can go also I bet they have another room.

  “Ya think?” I said enthusiastically. I knew had to get out of there. Before I was dead.

  22

  We pulled up to Marcus’s condo. “Remember what I said.” Pauly warned me. Good advice can always be given, but it isn’t always taken. Soon as we walked inside Marcus offered us a hit. Pauly said no and went in his room, I didn’t have a room to go to, I was sleeping on the couch, and who was I to refuse. This pattern went on for about three days and nights. Friday came and Pauly woke me up for work and I was actually sleeping. We got in the truck and Pauly looked at me with a smile.

  “He cut you off, huh?”

  “Yeah. And now I fucking owe him a thousand bucks.” I said all pissed off.

  “Don’t worry about it, he’s not. He’s making about ten grand a week. He just has a thing about giving it up for free after a little while. You’re better off.”

  “I know. I don’t even know why I was doing it. Like it was calling me. I don’t even like rushing out. I like going down better than up.”

  “Yeah, me too. That’s the drug. That’s what it’s geared to do, makes you think about nothing else, don’t want nothing else. Shit aint no good.”

  I fell into a routine. Waking up early and delivering fruit. Pauly and me moved out of Marcus’s condo and into a big house that a guy named Kevin was renting rooms out of. We each got a room and kept delivering fruit and vegetables. There wasn’t a lot going on except work. Kevin didn’t work, he sold weed and had a good clientele. A lot of cute girls were always coming in and out. I didn’t trust him though he was shifty.

  I still owed Marcus that thousand dollars. I hadn’t paid him anything. I started going up North to San Francisco and meeting Jeff on the weekends. I would buy real good hash or some ounces of good weed and bring it back. There was always a concert to go to, a lot of times it was the Grateful Dead. I really dug going to those shows, it was like a big drug party. I realized I didn’t like coke and I was getting more into other drugs like psychadelics, LSD, Mushrooms, Peyote, anything that would expand my mind. I would ride the greyhound back and forth up and down the California coast. It was my method of travel for a long time. It always seemed safe.

  “How was the trip?” Pauly asked me. I just got back from San Francisco with some Nepalese Temple balls. I had built up a little clientele so I not only worked delivering fruit I was dealing also.

  “Awesome. Got some insane hash. Nepalese Temple balls.” We went inside and I broke it out. Pauly was visibly impressed. I was always getting the best, most exotic smoke I could find. I was into the hippie drugs, like weed, hash, mushrooms and acid. I never got into drinking at all, I stayed away from Coke after that episode at Marcus’s and I never saw Heroin too much. It was never around. And I wasn’t looking for it.

  We sat in the living room and smoked till we were way stoned. Pauly looked at me with a grin.

  “What you got going on now?” I asked him. I knew something was up.

  “Come here, I wanna show you something.” We got up and went to his bedroom. He looked around then unlocked the door, which I found strange, he never locked his door and besides, we were in the house who could be there without us knowing it? He slipped in his room with me right after him and in the middle of the floor was a pile of weed, a bunch of pounds all bagged into half pound bags.

  “Where’d you get that?” I reached over and picked one up, open it and smelled it. “Not bad.” I said as I started rolling up a joint.

  “Marcus fronted it to me. He got a hundred pounds delivered from Miami. Kevin is on the way back, he took a sample to a guy and hopefully we will get rid of it in one shot.”

  “I don’t trust him, he’s shifty.” I said.

  “I know I got that. That’s why I need you to go with us if we go do the deal. I will pay the thousand back to Marcus that you owe him.”

  “Deal.” We sat there and smoked for about an hour until Kevin showed up. This guy was a snake and I knew it. He always had a story and was always in a rush.

  “I got good news and bad news.” He said. Fucking shifty motherfucker he was.

  “The price was a little steep for the first guy but I called another friend who liked the price and will probably take it all. We just gotta bring him a sample.”

  “What about the first sample?”

  “I smoked it with him and left him the rest to see what he could do. This is how it works Pauly. You gotta get it out there so somebody sees it who wants it.”

  Pauly looked at me and I looked at him like, ‘I told you so.’

  “Ok.” Pauly said reluctantly. He took an ounce and bagged it up.

  “You think this guy might want to buy some Black Nepalese Temple balls?” I held up a ball of hash. Kevin’s eyes bulged at the sight of it.

  “Absolutely. No doubt about it.” I grabbed my backpack with my scale, ledger, and three ounces of hash inside it at the bottom in a separate bag, then all my clothes on top. I had just come back from up north and did not have time to unpack.

  We piled into Kevin’s beat up Volkswagen bug and took off. It was just getting dark.

  We drove about a mile and Kevin kept talking about the people he knew and connections he had. People that know people and have connections like that don’t talk about it.

  “Uh oh.” Kevin said.

  “What? I asked.

  “We got a cop behind us.”

  “Is he pulling us over?” Pauly asked.

  “Not yet. I’m gonna make a right on the next block, I have a taillight out.”

  I knew right then it was all bad, I just had a bad feeling. He made the right and the cop turned on his lights.

  “Shit. He’s pulling us over. Listen, I picked you two up hitch hiking.”

 
“No you didn’t.” I said.

  “Yes I did. You have hash on you and he has weed. You better stash it, but If you get popped say I picked you up hitch hiking. I’m on parole.”

  “If I get popped I’m not gonna say anything.” I said, I knew that much. Pauly stashed his ounce in his sock. I had four ounces of hash, a scale, and a ledger of who owed what in the bottom of my backpack, so there was no way I could dig it out without making a scene. The cop strolled up to the car and leaned in the window.

  “Good evening. The reason I stopped you is because you have a tail light out. Do you have any weapons or drugs in the vehicle.”

  “No sir.” Kevin said.

  “License and registration from you driver, I.D’s from you two.” We handed over our I.D.’s and Kevin handed them all to the cop, Kevin’s hand was almost visibly shaking.

  “Sit tight gentlemen, I’ll be right back.” The cop said with a smirk. He then strolled back to his car like he had all the time in the world. Truth is, time starts to slow down when everything is going bad, as soon as you know it is all going south, it all becomes surreal as you start watching it all happen in slow motion.

  It seemed like an eternity while we waited for the cop to come back, no one said a word, just total silence. I could se in the rear view mirror the cop walking back and another squad car pull up and two other cops get out. I knew I was screwed.

  “Here he comes. Be cool. Let me do the talking.”

  “The cop is the only one’s gonna be talking.” I said

  “Shut up.” Kevin hissed at me. He was visibly nervous. The cop came up to the door and opened it.

  “Everybody out.” We all got out of the car. I was last and I left my bag on the back seat.

  “You three stand right there.” He stuck his head in and smelled around and stuck his head back out. “I smell marijuana.” I could see other cars go real slowly with kids in the cars watching us. The other cops walked up and searched us. The cop pulled my backpack out of the back seat.

  “Who’s is this?” Nobody said anything. Kevin looked at me with a glare. I didn’t say anything. Kevin spoke up.

  “I picked them up hitch hiking. I never saw that bag before.” The cop looked right at me.

  “I’m going to ask one more time. Who’s bag is this?” Nobody said anything and the cop unzipped the bag and started going through it. He was pulling the clothes out and placing them on the hood. Then he got to the scale, ledger and bag with four one ounce balls of black Nepalese Temple ball hash. Three stripes, the best there is. The cop took out one ball, broke it in half and smelled it. He looked at me, “Look’s like Heroin.”

  “It’s not.” I said. The cop grabbed me and spun me around and threw some handcuffs on me. “Tell it to the judge.” They walked me over to the squad car and put me in the back. That must have been enough for them because they didn’t even continue to search Kevin’s car. They let them go and took me off to jail. All in slow motion.

  23

  I sat on the bench in the San Diego courthouse with Pauly. I was waiting for my hearing on the hash charges. They got me for possession with intent to distribute on account of the scale and ledger. I was not too sure of what was going to happen, the public defender I had didn’t look to interested in my case when he talked to me.

  The lobby was full of all kinds of people, mostly from the street on drugs or violence charges, Two weeks into being eighteen and I am thinking I am going straight to the slammer. I couldn’t stop my leg from shaking. There was no one to call. I wasn’t going to worry my mom with this shit.

  Some guard walked up and opened the doors to the court with a key and everyone got up and walked inside.

  “You ready?”

  “This sucks.” I was totally bummed. We started to walk in and the cop who arrested me walked past and smirked at me. “ I have a ninety percent conviction rate.”

  “Good for you.” I said. Fuck him, thinks he is going to intimidate me? I was shaking.

  We walked inside and took two seats in the back. The cop went up and sat next to the prosecutor and whispered something in his ear and they both laughed. I thought ‘great, I ‘m screwed.’ I looked over at the public defender, his desk was covered with files he didn’t look very confident.

  “If this goes south I am gonna run out of here and you pick me up around the corner.”

  “Are you crazy? That aint gonna work. You won’t even make it out of the court”

  “Wanna bet? Fear is a great motivator.”

  “So’s a paycheck.” Pauly motioned to the cop at the door. He looked like a linebacker for the Chargers. He definitely looked like he could catch me.

  “ALL RISE.” The judge walked in and everyone got up. Pauly pulled me up. “Don’t be stupid.” He said. “Just relax.”

  “I’m trying.”

  They started calling people by name and they would step up one at a time and stand between the two tables. The prosecutor would read the charges and the judge would ask them if they had anything to say. Sometimes the cop would speak, but mostly everyone was just taking whatever deal the court offered. He was handing out one to three years in jail like it was nothing. I thought I was doomed.

  The called my case and the cop got on the stand, I sat at the table next to the public defender. The guy was completely over worked with a pile of cases in front of him he could barely see the judge.

  The cop starts telling this fairy tale of how we were weaving in and out of traffic, so he pulled us over. All lies I‘m telling you.

  “Your honor, I pulled the suspects over for weaving. After I pulled the suspects over, I saw in the backseat a backpack with a plastic bag sticking out of the zipper. At that time I suspected there was narcotics in the backpack so I made entry and found the contraband.” The cop lied. The Judge thought about this for a moment then looked down at me, visibly shaking, long hair, Birkenstocks, my best button down surf shirt, sitting at the desk across from him.

  “And what do you have to say about this officer’s testimony young man?” The Judge asked me. I sat up straight and said quietly,

  “It’s insane that he swore to tell the truth, then lied like the devil to lock me up. I don’t understand. Why would he do that?” You could hear the court sort of laugh quietly. The Judge thought about this for a minute.

  “ I don’t know, I’ll ask him. “ He turned to the cop. “ How did you know there was contraband in the back pack?”

  “Uh excuse me?” The cop was dumbfounded. “I saw the plastic.”

  “That could have been a sandwich, couldn’t it have been? Officer?”

  “I guess so.” The cop said still astounded the Judge was siding with me.

  ‘” know so. Case dismissed.” The judge said it so quick it took me a second to react. Then I jumped up and ran out. I walked to the nearest pay phone and called Gary to see what was happening back home. I had burned out California for a minute I thought.

  “Oigo.” Gary always answered like a Cuban. Oigo means, “I’m listening.”

  “What’s happening?’ I asked.

  “I hear you are getting in all kinds of trouble out there. Guess the West aint the best after all.” Gary said.

  “Maybe it just needs a break. Whats happening at home?”

  “You wouldn’t believe it if I told you.”

  “Try.”

  “Work has been going crazy. Guys that were humping bails now own boats. Everyone and their mother is smuggling. Making money hand over fist.”

  “My room still empty?”

  “And you got a job waiting for ya. I gotta warn you though.”

  “What?”

  “It’s about a hundred degrees in the shade.”

  I got on the next Greyhound Bus and headed back east. Home.

  24

  “Here’s five hundred. Go buy all the food you want, get cases.” Frank said. He went back to the truck to use the phone and talk to his partner Doug. I walked into the local Vegetarian food market. I bought cases of
everything, Soy Milk, Tofu, chips and Candy. Bread and Cheese and whatever I thought would be good for the guys that didn’t eat the way I did. We had boxes of food, which is the smartest way to go out on the open sea.

  We loaded up the truck and headed for the Marina. There were other boat Captains and crews packing up their boats also, and everyone heading out around dusk, also like usual.

  We headed out into the blackness of the ocean. There is always an exciting feeling on the way out of the Harbor. Anything can happen and I was well aware of that. I never worried though, I was only thinking about the money I was going to make.

  We got out into the open ocean at the meeting spot and there were already two boats waiting. We got the news that about forty miles further out to sea was a Colombian freighter with twenty thousand pounds welded into the hull of the boat. The Colombians would not break the seal until there were enough boats to unload the weed at one time. We had to wait on the water for two more days while other boats arrive. Good thing we brought over a weeks worth of food.

  On the third night we got the news tonight was the night. There were about ten boats there ready to unload. We could take about five thousand pounds, but some boats could only take a thousand. We pulled up to the freighter and got in line. We were the third boat back. Frank was looking at the time.

  “If these guys don’t hurry up, we are going to get fucked. The sun will be coming up when we are trying to get back. That aint good.”

  I thought about this for a moment. “Pull up on the other side.” I said to Frank.

  “For what? Are you crazy? We will lose our place in line.”

  “Trust me.” It was hard for Frank to trust me. I was younger than anyone else there by a few years.

  “I have a plan. You wanna get out of here quick, right?”

  “Yeah.” Frank said reluctantly. He undid the line and called out to the Captain behind us.